Nasty Little Thoughts
by Annaleise Marie
Summary: No one has seen or heard from Emmett's little sister since she graduated high school six years ago. One day she shows up with no warning, asking for a place to stay for a while. Edward is understandably hesitant, but even he has no idea what he's getting himself into. [language, lemons, non-graphic mentions of abuse]
1. Awkward

**Nasty Little Thoughts**  
Annaleise Marie

**Summary**: No one had seen or heard from Emmett's little sister since she graduated high school six years ago. One day she shows up with no warning, asking for a place to stay for a while. Edward is, of course, hesitant, but even he doesn't know what he's getting himself into.

**Chapter One**: Awkward

**AN**: So this is probably going to be pretty short compared to my other stories. Actually, it was originally going to be a oneshot but apparently that's not how I roll. Inspired by the song "Washin' + Wonderin'" by Stroke 9. Hope you enjoy it!

Also, while I'm trying to employ the tips and such my betas are teaching me, they are not working on this story. So all mistakes are mine and mine alone.

X

_Well the word is out, what's it all about  
Doubtless shady, no shadow of doubt  
In moderation, this sensation would be fabulous  
But she's figured me out  
She's in my shower for an hour  
She's just washin' and wonderin'  
And trying to figure me out..._

_And I wanna shout at the top of my lungs now  
But oh my god if she hears me she'll come running in...  
These are my hands, these are my faults  
These are my plans and these are my nasty little thoughts  
I wrote 'em down for you to contemplate..._

- "Washin' + Wonderin'" by Stroke 9

X

It had become a long-standing tradition after college for me and my old roommates to meet up at our old regular bar every other Friday night. At first it had just been Emmett, Jasper, and I, but then Jasper up and eloped one weekend - after knowing the girl for a week, literally - and his wife, Alice started tagging along. She was one of those genuinely sweet people, and though she could seem a little out-of-place in the hectic bar, she fit well with the rest of us, so that was fine.

Then Emmett nearly got run over by a car...and fell in love with Rosalie, the woman responsible. That was cool, you know, whatever. They got married last week, after dating for two years. This was actually the first time anyone had seen or heard from either of them since their wedding day, as far as I knew, and they hadn't even gone anywhere.

I tried not to be envious of them. Just because I was supposed to be approaching my first anniversary and was instead sitting alone, surrounded by happy couples, that was no reason to be bitter. Even if my friends _had_ found their literal other fucking halves and I had instead been ditched at the altar by my bitch ex-fiance.

Absolutely no reason to act like a surly asshole.

Emmett froze halfway through some story, his eyes going wide as he stared across the bar. Jasper and I both whipped our heads around, scanning the crowd. "Oh fuck," Emmett groaned. "Bella."

"_Bella_?" Rose asked, craning her neck to try to pick her out of the crowd. I don't know why she was trying, really. Actually, it didn't make any sense for _any_ of us to try to find her. Not one of us had ever actually met Emmett's younger sister. She had gone to college on the east coast, and after graduation she had stayed there, working for a publishing house in Philadelphia. No one had seen her in six years. She didn't come home for holidays or vacation. She didn't even come to Emmett's wedding.

At the bar a girl was scanning the crowd, and when her eyes fell on our table she lifted her arm and waved. She had dark hair, almost the same shade as Emmett's, that fell in loose waves down to the middle of her back. Her hair color was the only similarity she and Emmett shared, though. While Emmett was tall and broad, this girl couldn't be more than five and a half feet tall, if that. She had a slight build and large, innocent eyes. While Emmett was almost constantly joking and smiling, she looked serious as a heart attack. She paused for a moment when Emmett didn't wave back, but then started toward us.

"Did she tell you she was coming?" Rose asked. Emmett shook his head, his jaw tense. "What do you think brought her back?"

"Guess we're going to find out."

Bella had finally reached our table and Alice immediately stood up and grabbed a chair from the table next to us and set it beside hers, motioning for Bella to sit down. Emmett shot her a mutinous glare. Alice could be too polite for her own good.

"Hey Em," Bella muttered, looking uncomfortable as she scooted her chair closer to the table. Emmett nodded at her but didn't say anything. "What, no warm welcome?"

"Are you serious?" Emmett asked, narrowing his eyes.

Bella shrugged. "I guess not." She took a deep breath. "I know our relationship's pretty much sucked over the last few years, but I need a favor."

The girl didn't beat around the bush, I'd give her that.

Emmett studied her for a minute, not saying anything, before he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. "What?"

"I need to crash with you for a little while. Just until I find my own place." Her request came out in a rush and Emmett looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

"You can't stay with me right now," he sputtered. Wow. Awkward. "I'm a newlywed, Bella. You may have forgotten, since the wedding clearly slipped your mind. Or, let me guess. Your invitation got lost in the mail?"

Bella glared at him, tilting her chin up defiantly. "I couldn't just go gallivanting across the country at the moment, Emmett."

"Oh, I see. It didn't work last week, but now that you need something..."

"Maybe we should just give you guys some privacy—" Alice started as she stood up, Jasper following suit. I braced my hands on the table, about to stand up.

"Sit down." Emmett's voice was quiet but left no room for argument and the three of us dropped back into our seats.

Bella sighed. "Look, I _had_ to be in Philadelphia last week, okay? But now my court case is settled and—"

"Court case?" Emmett interrupted with a groan. "What did you do, Bella?"

"I punched James." Bella's eyes flashed defiantly. "Broke his jaw."

"James?"

"My boyfriend. Well, _ex_-boyfriend. So then he pressed charges for assault and domestic battery. Ironic. Anyway, I finally got that settled, and I decided it was time to get away from that mess and come back. My boss is letting me contract out to work from home, so I grabbed my laptop and a couple changes of clothes, left James the apartment, and...here I am." She reached down and lifted a small bag I hadn't noticed before as though to illustrate her point.

Emmett frowned, seeming to be having a hard time making sense of this story. I couldn't blame him.

"Okay," he finally said. "You still can't stay with me, though. You should call Mom and Dad."

"I'm not calling them," Bella snapped. "They would just _love_ to gloat that I had to come running back."

"Well, you _have_." Emmett raised his eyebrows at her.

"Yeah, but they're going to make it seem like I failed or something, and that's not true." Bella shot him an exaggerated pout. "Please, Em?"

Emmett and Rose exchanged a glance and Emmett groaned, scrubbing his face with a massive paw. "Jesus Christ, Bella. You just can't right now. What about a hotel?"

"I'm mildly successful, Emmett. That doesn't mean I'm rich."

Emmett gave this some thought, his eyes landing on each of us in turn. They paused on me. Oh no.

"Edward might let you stay with him," he said. Bella turned to me, smiling brightly.

"Would you?" I recognized that tone. Tanya used it every time she was asking me for something and was absolutely sure I would do it because she was just so entitled. Or maybe I was just reading too much into it.

"I don't really have the room," I said, trying to dodge the request without saying no flat-out. I didn't want to be rude. I wasn't sure why though. Emmett hadn't cared much about being rude. But then again, she was my best friend's sister, and estranged or not, I didn't feel right being mean to her.

"I don't take up much space," she said, gesturing to herself. "And I only have my laptop and a few changes of clothes."

I looked around the group for help. Alice actually smiled at me encouragingly. Jasper's face was carefully blank. I'd be getting no help from him. Emmett and Rose both gave me pleading looks. Traitors. They didn't want her there, so they were going to do everything they could to pawn her off on me.

"You know what? Never mind," Bella said, standing up and grabbing her bag. "I'm sorry to bother you guys. I'll figure something out."

And then she was gone, pushing her way through the crowd of people milling around and then disappearing through the door.

"Okay, what was that about?" Jasper asked, raising his eyebrows questioningly at Emmett.

"I honestly have no idea. I haven't heard from her in about three years, and I haven't seen her since the day after her high school graduation." Emmett shook his head, sighing heavily. "She's always been a bit of a mess, though. And she always bounces back. She'll figure it out, and then she'll go on her way."

"Is that why you offered up my apartment?" I asked.

Emmett shrugged. "Sure. She'd be gone within a week, if I were to guess And I mean, she's my sister. Just because I don't like her doesn't mean I don't care if she ends up on the streets." He smiled wryly. "I don't blame you for saying no, though."

"Yeah, that was kind of awkward, though," Alice pointed out. She slammed back the last of her drink and stood. Jasper got up without a word and followed her to the bar. They had fallen into perfect synch almost as soon as they met, and it still weirded me out a little bit.

"You don't think she'll actually end up in the street, do you?" Rosalie asked.

Emmett shook his head. "Nah. She's resourceful, if anything."

X

We closed the bar down that night. Bella's reappearance really had seemed to shake Emmett up. I hadn't seen him drink like that since college. Ten shots of tequila in quick succession and he hijacked the karaoke machine. I had to give Rosalie credit; instead of getting embarrassed she just joined him.

They wrapped up the night with an extremely intoxicated rendition of "I Got You" by Sonny and Cher, and then we were all ushered out of the bar for closing.

Rose and Emmett headed for the underground and Alice and Jasper went to collect their car from the parking garage, leaving me to walk home alone. Jasper always offered to give me a lift home, but since I only lived three blocks away if I cut through the park, I rarely accepted if the weather was nice.

Tanya had always hated it when I would cut through the park to get home at night. That was probably actually a big part of why I did it. She couldn't tell me what to do anymore. Pure spite.

The park was relatively empty, being as late as it was. That was probably why the huddled shape on the bench caught my eye so easily. My heart dropped when I recognized the bag sitting next to the shape.

_Bella_.

I stopped, wondering if I should even say anything to her. I felt a little guilty. She had left the bar hours ago, so if she was just sitting here, I figured it was a safe bet that she hadn't "figured something out".

"You know what I always tell authors when I'm working on their manuscripts?" She spoke so suddenly and so quietly that for a second I wondered if I had imagined it.

I sighed and walked over to sit beside her. "What's that?"

"To avoid clichés like the plague." She smiled wryly, unfolding her legs and sitting up straighter. "It's sort of a joke, because 'like the plague' is a cliché, but I think it's pretty sound advice."

"Okay."

"And now here I am, trying to sleep on a park bench because I can't find anywhere else to go." She let out a bitter laugh. "My life is a cliché."

I didn't know what to say. So I just sat there, staring up at the night sky. I noticed that, while it wasn't freezing, I could see my breath faintly. The guilty feeling nestled deeper in my gut.

"Why is Emmett so freaked out that you're back?" I asked after a moment.

She seemed to think about it for a minute. "Well, we were really close when we were younger..." she started slowly with a small smile. "He was my big brother, and I pretty much worshipped the ground he walked on. But I grew up...differently, I guess. There was nothing _wrong_ with what our parents wanted for us, not really. But it wasn't what _I_ wanted." She bit her lip and took in a deep breath. "So, as soon as I graduated, I took off. I moved as far away as I could and never looked back. And in trying to distance myself from them and their expectations, and my determination to be independent, I guess I sort of abandoned him, too."

I nodded, not because I really understood, but because I didn't know what else to do.

"I didn't mean to hurt him. Just...if I kept in touch with him, it would be too easy to run to him when I was scared or whatever. I got where I am today with the mindset that I had no safety net. It was do or die."

"Where you are today." I echoed, grinning despite the grim circumstances. "Sleeping on a park bench in Seattle?"

"I didn't say it was perfect," she said with a laugh.

I sighed, standing up and dusting the park grime from my pants. "Alright, come on."

Bella shot me a confused look as I picked up her bag.

"I guess you're staying with me for a while," I said, trying to ignore the part of my mind that was screaming at me that this was a very, very bad idea. I couldn't just leave her like this, could I?

X

**AN**: Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Hit me up! :D


	2. The Potential Fugitive

**Nasty Little Thoughts**  
Annaleise Marie

**Chapter Two**: The Potential Fugitive

**AN**: Wow! This story saw an amazing amount of activity after being posted. Thanks to everyone who added it to their faves/alerts! I hope I can deliver on that!

I should mention that I'm writing this story to keep the creative juices flowing while my other story, "Animals in a Cage" is in beta. If you're a fan of stories with a serious case of the dark and twisties, I suggest checking it out. The point is, though, that updates may be occasionally sporadic, but I'm going to try really hard to keep on top of this. On that note, I'm not abandoning "Animals". The next chapter is about 75% done with the beta process right now, as a matter of fact.

Oh, I forgot to say last chapter, but I'm not Stephanie Meyer. If I was, that whole series would have been very, very different. Anyway, because I'm not Smeyer, I'm not making any money off of this story. I'm writing simply for your adoration and entertainment purposes. Cool beans?

Thanks for reading! And now, on with our story!

X

By the time I stumbled down the hall the next morning, still half-asleep and in serious need of some coffee, Bella had pretty much taken over my living room. The blanket she had used last night was folded neatly at the end of the couch, her pillow balanced on top. She was wearing a pair of plaid pajama pants and a tee shirt that said, _I have a whole case of back-up plans in the trunk_. Her long hair was restrained in a messy bun and a pair of reading glasses were perched on her nose as she stared intently at the screen of her laptop.

"Good morning," she chirped cheerfully when she saw me. "I made coffee." She held up a mug as though to illustrate her point. "It's still pretty fresh. Hope you don't mind."

Mind? I could have kissed her in that moment.

Instead I padded into the kitchen and occupied myself with finding a clean mug - I had a pretty busy week at work, and the dishes sort of got away from me - and pouring myself a cup.

While doing that, I considered the situation. I had this girl staying with me now. Even if she was Emmett's sister, and even if she had nowhere else to go, I was pretty sure it was rule number one of the Stranger Danger Code not to just invite random people to crash on your couch indefinitely. No matter how well they made coffee. Hell, for that I could just haul out the manual and finally learn how to set the auto-brew on the stupid machine.

And what did I actually _know_ about this girl? I didn't even know what she did. I mean, I knew she worked for a publisher, and that she had some sort of contact with the writers, so my guess was that she was an editor or proof-reader, but I didn't _really_ even know that.

And what about her sudden exodus from Philadelphia? I didn't even know what had brought her here, but I couldn't guess it was anything small. It had to have taken a lot of pull to get her boss to agree to let her work remotely. Surely they'd rather her work at the office like a normal person? Of course I guessed that probably had a lot to do with her job, which as I said, was still a mystery.

My heart skipped as a thought occurred to me. She had mentioned a court case. She said it was settled but what if...what if she was on the run? Did I actually have a fucking _fugitive_ on my hands?

Or that ex-boyfriend she had mentioned. What if she was running from him? Was I going to get home from work one evening to find a crazy guy in my apartment? What if he killed her? I would be blamed for that, surely. It was _my_ apartment.

Or what if he killed _me_? Stabbed me in my sleep, or something? Of course to get to me, he'd have to go through the living room, so unless he was the jealous type I doubted he'd continue past Bella...

But that still left Bella dead in my apartment. Fuck.

Okay. I was probably over-thinking this. Emmett had said she was flighty. That was probably all this was.

There was probably no one coming after her, police or murderer. Right. Okay. Deep breaths.

"Are you okay?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin and spun around, my heart hammering, to find Bella standing in the kitchen doorway. Her glasses were gone and I was hit full-blast with her giant concerned fucking Bambi eyes.

"I'm fine!" I nearly shouted at her in my surprise. She just stared at me and I cleared my throat nervously. "Sorry. You just startled me."

"Uh-huh." She grabbed a dish towel off of the counter and crouched down. I had spilled coffee on the floor when I spun around, and she was cleaning it up. "Are you always this jumpy in the mornings?"

"No." I shook my head and silently added, _Only when there are potential fugitives in my apartment._

"Okay..." She quirked an eyebrow at me. "So I was thinking, I don't think I'll be staying here long or anything, but if we're going to be living together for a while, it might be nice to get to know each other a bit, right?"

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak yet. My heart was still hammering.

"So...do you want to come sit with me while you drink your coffee, or do you need to get ready for work or... See, I don't even know what you do." She laughed, turning to head back to the living room. I followed her, taking a drink of my coffee, trying to calm my nerves. Sure, caffeine to calm the nerves. That would work beautifully.

I abruptly realized she had asked me a question. "I'm a professor."

"A professor? Really? You?" She eyed me up and down as I lowered myself into the recliner and she resumed her post on the couch.

I nodded. "Music. History, specifically."

"Ah." Bella gave me a knowing look. "Those who can't do, teach."

"I actually can do." I shrugged. "There just isn't as much of a market for a concert pianist as you might think. I like being able to make rent every month. Adult life doesn't always afford you the luxury of chasing your dreams."

"I did." She shrugged. "Of course, here I am. So you may be right. Although, I didn't come back because I couldn't make rent, for what it's worth."

There it was: the perfect opening. The perfect chance to ask why she had come back. To settle once and for all if she was a fugitive, or running away from her ex, or whatever.

But I didn't ask. I didn't want to admit it, but I was legitimately afraid of the answer. We had gotten along pretty well - not that there was much time to mess it up yet - and if she was going to be staying with me, I didn't want to open that can of worms when it wasn't an issue yet. Besides, if I actually didn't know, I could invoke the fifth amendment if this all went horribly wrong. I thought. Or maybe the fifth amendment was just the right to shut up. I'd have to ask Emmett what "plead the fifth" actually meant. I was pretty sure it kept your ass out of the fire, though.

"But anyway, what's holding you back?" Her words pulled me back out of my thoughts. "I mean, you're not married, you don't have kids... It seems like this would be the perfect time to chase your dreams."

I shrugged. This wasn't really a conversation I wanted to open up, either. I opted for the _Reader's Digest_ version. "I planned everything when I thought I was getting married and starting a family. She broke off the engagement, but I guess since I was already moving forward according to that plan, I just kept going."

"Oh. I'm sorry." She bit her lip, casting her eyes down at the carpet. "I didn't know. I mean, of _course_ I didn't know. I have a tendency to try to talk about things that I don't really know about."

The candid assessment of her own character took me by surprise, and I started to laugh. Her face turned a deep shade of red. "Sorry," I gasped between peals of laughter. "I just... I don't think I've ever heard anyone just admit something like that."

"Yeah, well..." She trailed off, laughing a little herself. "Okay, your turn then. Admit something about yourself."

"What?"

"It's only fair," she insisted. "Go on."

I thought about it. Honestly, I didn't give myself that much thought. Was that an admission in itself? "I don't think much about myself. I mean, I don't spend much time assessing how or why I do things, or anything like that."

"You know what I think?" Bella asked, taking a sip of her coffee.

"I get the feeling you're going to tell me."

"Mmhmm. I think you need to get to know yourself a little better."

The whole situation was surreal. I had a potential fugitive giving me advice on my life. In less than half a day, my life had turned into some sort of weird sitcom situation.

X

Over the next week, Bella and I settled into an odd sort of routine. She woke up at the crack of dawn, as far as I could tell, and by the time I woke up she'd have coffee made and she'd be working her way through one manuscript or another. While I drank my coffee and checked my email, we'd chat a bit. It turned out one of my guesses was right. She was a copy editor. I asked her why she wasn't an author herself.

She'd just shrugged. "My job is to make people's dreams come true. What more could I ask for?"

After coffee, she'd go back to her work and I'd get ready for work. When I got home from work she was usually gone. The first time this happened, three days into her stay, it sent up an odd panic signal in my mind until I noticed that her laptop was still sitting on the end table, charging. I didn't spend much time assessing the strange knee-jerk reaction. Actually, I _refused_ to assess it.

She had come wandering back in a few hours later, grumbling about the near-impossibility of finding a semi-livable, semi-affordable apartment in Seattle. That routine was to be repeated every day after.

I tried to help her, but it was pretty difficult, considering I didn't know anything about her finances or criteria for a "livable" apartment. It usually ended with her getting irritated and snatching the listings from me with a huff.

"Why don't you just hire a realtor?" I asked on one such occasion.

She rolled her eyes. "I swear, between you and Emmett, if I had half as much money as you seem to think I do, I'd be sitting pretty."

"Have you talked to him since your first night here?" I folded my arms on the table and rested my head on them, peering up at her.

"Hmm?" She wrinkled her nose as she scanned the listings. "No, I haven't heard from him. Have you?"

I had called Emmett the morning after I brought Bella home. He thanked me, made some sort of joke about not touching his sister, and then rushed off the phone. I didn't think it would do a lot of good to tell Bella about that, though. "Not really. He knows your here, but I haven't really had a conversation with him. I guess we'll catch up at the bar Friday."

"You guys do that _every_ Friday?" Bella seemed oddly interested in that idea. It didn't seem that novel to me. People were amazing creatures of habit. I saw it every day in class. I had never enforced any sort of seating chart - I taught college, after all, not elementary school - and yet every day, almost without fail, almost every single student sat in the exact same seat as every day prior.

"Yeah. It's just easiest to have a sort of standing appointment." I shrugged. "With all of them being married and all of us getting our careers going, it's hard to schedule things on the fly."

Bella seemed to think about this and then nodded. "Makes sense. Mind if I tag along?"

I hesitated at that. The last time Bella and Emmett had come face-to-face had been pretty uncomfortable, if not confrontational.

Bella gave me a knowing smile. "Unless you think I'll cramp your style? If we all look coupled up it might scare the ladies away."

"What? No." I answered too quickly and almost winced. "I mean, I don't really bring women home with me."

"More of a backseat guy?" Bella nodded. I couldn't tell if she was joking or not.

"More of a monk." I figured that could be taken as joking or serious, whichever track she was on.

She nodded. "I can get on board with that. After James..." She shook her head, smiling slightly. "Let's just say I'm good on my own for a while."

I had just taken a sip of my water and I nearly choked at the double meaning. What was I thinking? I shouldn't be thinking things like that about my best friend's sister.

"So I can come then?"

I blinked at her, confused by her question. _Stop thinking about your friend's sister that way._ "What?"

"I can come to the bar?" She grinned at me. "Jeez, what's wrong with you today?"

I wanted to bang my head against the table. I couldn't begin to explain to her what might be wrong with me. "Sure. Yeah. But you should probably give Emmett a head's up before you just show up there, you know?"

Bella nodded and then turned her attention back to the apartment listings. I wasn't sure if she was actually planning to call Emmett or not. I would have to remember to do it just in case.

X

**AN**: I know, short. But the next chapter is going to be considerably longer, and I didn't want to combine them. Thoughts? I'd love to hear from you guys! And thanks so much to those of you who reviewed the last chapter! I appreciate them all!


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